BracketBusters: Siena home to Radford; Fairfield hosts UAlbany

Published 10:33 pm, Monday, February 4, 2013

ALBANY — Siena stays home and the University at Albany hits the road, and neither basketball team will be on television during the 11th — and final — edition of the ESPN BracketBusters.

The Saints will play Radford of the Big South Conference at noon Sunday, Feb. 24, at Times Union Center. The Great Danes get a date with Fairfield of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in Bridgeport, Conn., on a date to be determined.

There are 13 BracketBusters games that will be televised by either ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPN3. The Saints and Danes didn't make the cut. There are 122 teams participating in the event.

This will be the fifth time the Danes have played in the BracketBusters. Last year, UAlbany got its first win when it beat Rider at SEFCU Arena. They also lost at Canisius in 2008 and dropped televised games at Boise State (2007) and Virginia Commonwealth (2006). Fairfield and UAlbany have never played each other.

"As we approach the Fairfield game, we will prepare for it like we prepare for a league game," UAlbany coach Will Brown said Monday night. "We will not devalue it by any means. We want to win it and we will prepare to win it, but we don't get consumed by it."

The Danes are 17-7 overall and 6-4 in America East. They play at Maryland-Baltimore County on Wednesday night. Brown said he was hoping to watch the second half of the Fairfield-Siena game, which was televised locally Monday night.

This will be the eighth straight season that Siena has participated in the BracketBusters. Last year, the Saints lost at Hofstra; the year before they beat Maine at home.

"I think it'll be an interesting game," Siena coach Mitch Buonaguro said. "I saw they have 10 wins. I don't know anything about them. I know they play in the Big South. We've got to prepare like any game. It'll be a tough game."

All-time, the Saints are 4-3 in the event.

Siena is 2-0 against Radford, which is 10-13 and 4-5 in the Big South. The Saints beat the Highlanders 67-59 in the first game of the 2000-01 season and then got a 74-72 win in the championship game of the Holiday Inn-Naismith Challenge in 1989.